. >>> just a while ago our wolf blitzer spoke with former british prime minister tony blair about the cross-border battalions between israel and hamas, and wolf joins us now, and, wolf, i know that he also serves as the peace envoy, the middle east peace envoy. does he believe that peace can be achieved here? >> well, he is not very upbeat in the short-term. he is obviously like everyone else would like to see some sort of immediate cease-fire to stop the killing on the israeli and the palestinian side in gaza. he knows there's a lot of diplomatic activity going on behind the scenes. he himself has been in touch with most of the parties not directly with hamas since as a representative of what's called the quartet, including the quartet and european union. the u.s. and european union don't recognize hamas. they regard hamas as a terrorist organization, but there have been -- he has been involved with egypt, obviously, turkey, many of the other parties who are working feverishly behind the scenes to get some sort of cease-fire. look, if there is a cease-fire, that's just the first step